A giant glowing dragon now hangs above the main corridor at Blenheim Road Community Primary School after pupils in the Year 3/4 class worked with a professional artist to design and build their own light sculpture.
The striking piece, made from bamboo, willow and translucent paper with lights inside, was the end result of the class’s Festivals of Light project, which explored how different cultures use light to celebrate hope, identity and community.
Class teacher Sian Stanton said the children felt “pride” when the finished dragon was lifted into place.
Sian said: “Our project was Festivals of Light…so we were looking at all different cultures and festivals that have light as a focus, and in that, they looked at different lanterns.
“We looked at Divali, we looked at Christmas and then the children had a go at designing all different types of materials.”
As part of the project, the class worked with artist Laura Frances Martin, who specialises in large illuminated sculptures. The children researched her work before meeting her and discussing how they could create something that reflected both their learning and their own identities.
“They [the children] all did their own sort of design element on that and then she [the artist] kind of put that together to make a plan so little things like one of the children did a square-based pyramid on the top of the dragon, so like she added little things that they did,” Sian explained.
“And then she came in for two days and they designed it together. So they used the willow, they used the bamboo to kind of bend it into place.
“We learned about how light works, the different transparent translucent materials for them to design it then.
“And then we decided that’s where our dragon is going to go to take pride and take central place and it’s been really nice because it’s Eisteddfod at the moment, so we’re doing a lot of St David’s Day stuff, so it kind of marries up.
“It’s absolutely lush because obviously we are year three/ four class, we’re kind of in the middle, but even just seeing like the reception children come down and they’re [the year three/four class] so proud because their little faces are lighting up when they’re walking past and that makes our children really proud.”
With St David’s Day and the Eisteddfod celebrations underway, the dragon has already become a fitting centrepiece.
“The idea is that it’s going to stay there forever,” Sian added. “Those children will come back once they’ve left school and it’ll still be in that central place. They’ve absolutely loved it.”
DP Fencing and Garden Services was thanked for loaning the school a van and scaffolding tower to get the dragon into place.